Social Learning in Social Networks

This paper analyzes a model of social learning in a social network. Agents decide whether or not to adopt a new technology with unknown payoffs based on their prior beliefs and the experiences of their neighbors in the network. Using a mean-field approximation, I prove that the diffusion process alw...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Lamberson, PJ
Format: Working Paper
Language:en_US
Published: Cambridge, MA; Alfred P. Sloan School of Management, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 2011
Subjects:
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/66569
Description
Summary:This paper analyzes a model of social learning in a social network. Agents decide whether or not to adopt a new technology with unknown payoffs based on their prior beliefs and the experiences of their neighbors in the network. Using a mean-field approximation, I prove that the diffusion process always has at least one stable equilibrium, and I examine the dependence of the set of equilibria on the model parameters and the structure of the network. In particular, I show how first and second order stochastic dominance shifts in the degree distribution of the network impact diffusion. I find that the relationship between equilibrium diffusion levels and network structure depends on the distribution of payoffs to adoption and the distribution of agents' prior beliefs regarding those payoffs, and I derive the precise conditions characterizing those relationships.